Summer in B
by thegirltalkingtoyou
Summary: Summer may end, but it will always come back. Cheren and White friendship, romance if you squint and turn your head sideways.


Leuma here. I haven't written anything for fanfiction in two years, and should probably be working on my Fire Emblem themes instead. Actually, I should probably be going to sleep since I need to get ready for college in two hours. I don't really know where this came from. One minute I was listening to _Summer in B_ by Amber Pacific, and next I know I'm writing. It's a bit rough probably, because I wrote it and threw the document up here in an hour.

This is a bit different than my other stories. Mainly because it's a full on drabble, instead of a paragraph or a sentence set to a predetermined theme. As for the flow of the story, I wanted my story to have a rambling sort of feel. Like the character was musing off on a thought in his head.

Cheren's character was a bit hard to pen. I may have taken a bit of liberty with his personality, or I may have depicted him just as you imagined he would be. You'll just have to read to find out.

This is a Cheren and White friendship piece. If you want to look closely and consider it a Cheren/White romance, then be my guest.

As always, I own nothing. If I did, I would spend my days riding a ferris wheel with N and admiring his hair.

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><p>He remembered summer.<p>

Summer meant a lot of different things to him. It meant bonfires on the beach. Bianca's mom's home-made berry ice cream. Ducking under the shade of the trees to hide from the sweltering sun that hit Nuvema town hard in the middle of the season. It meant scraped knees and grass stains and a smear of dirt on her cheek as she pulls herself, grinning, off the ground after she tripped over the same root she's tripped over since she was six and wandering into the woods with her friends for the first time. He shakes his head as he extends a hand to help her up: his face serious, but his eyes dancing with mirth. She may be faster than him, but it doesn't matter if she can't keep upright.

Summer always ends though.

The first day of Autumn finds him in her room with their other best friend, Bianca. Together, they opened the box. Chose a new friend. Had their first battle. Took the first steps of the rest of their lives.

And then they parted.

He found that Autumn was a lot different from Summer. Autumn meant campfires to keep away the chill of the night air. Dry, rationed food that was by no means plentiful. Escaping the forest with a badly injured Snivy in his arms, wracked with guilt and self-loathing as he rushes to a Pokémon Center because damn it, what kind of future champion falls behind his friend, and what kind of trainer pushes a Pokémon that hard? It meant scraped knees and grass stains and pride in yourself and loneliness and feeling awkward when you run into people you've known your whole life, because you're suddenly all becoming different people. He decided that Autumn could go to hell, because it sucked.

Autumn was nothing compared to Winter though.

The first flakes of snow fell as he entered Driftveil City. He soon found himself tracking down grunts with her in a giant freezer, and between the battles and complaints about the cold and _who the hell would send a bunch of kids into a freezer in the Winter_ they were able to catch up a bit; he heard her laugh again, and decided Winter might not be that bad after all. But suddenly there were more than just grunts. There were Sages and a King and dragons and they were all threatening to take away HIS Pokémon, and all of this paled in comparison to the jealousy and frustration he felt every time he lost to her, because she was better than him, and she was chosen, and she had figured out something he'd been trying to find the answer to since his journey began. And the more he felt jealous, the more he felt ashamed because she was his best friend and he felt guilty for being so caught up in himself that he couldn't be happy for her.

And then suddenly everything was happening so fast and the King started moving across the chessboard and he arrived at the Pokémon League just in time for a CASTLE to rise up and engulf the establishment. The heavy snow had nothing to do with his blood running cold when he entered the stadium and saw her, determined to climb those stairs and end this. He knew arguing and demanding to go with her would get him nowhere, so he stayed back with Alder and paced and fidgeted until he saw the great black dragon descend from the sky and he decided that her pride could be damned: he wasn't going to let her go this alone. The Champion and he entered the throne room to see the King defeated and that man with the eye patch and the cold demeanor yelling and he discovered that the King was actually a Pawn and the man was actually the "King" and then the man started a battle against her and lost too. He grabbed the "King" and dragged him away, gritting his teeth every time the man spoke ill of her because NOBODY talked bad about his friends. She followed shortly after, offering no explanation as to the King's whereabouts, and from the backs of their Braviarys they could see spring buds coming up from the trees near Nuvema town and they knew that Winter had passed.

Spring found them once again on separate paths, he training under the Champion's tutelage and she wiping out the King's remaining pawns. The training was hard and he enjoyed every minute of it, because she showed him what being a Pokémon trainer was really about. He'd hear about her on the news, see her name on those flashy bulletin boards in between the note about the crazy storm and the latest news on Elesa's modeling career. She'd stop by every once in a while, and they'd go down to a café and eat berry ice cream and wish it was like Bianca's mom makes it. But quick as she came, she would leave again, chasing after another sage. And he would return to his training and as the Spring days grew hotter and hotter he would remember Summertime and miss it more and more.

Three weeks into the Summer, she showed up at the League unexpectedly and told him to come home with her, back to Nuvema town. He knows he never really has a choice with her, so he goes.

Summer means a lot of different things to Cheren. It means bonfires on the beach. Bianca's mom's home-made berry ice cream. Ducking under the shade of the trees to hide from the sweltering sun that hit Nuvema town hard in the middle of the season. They means scraped knees and grass stains and a smear of dirt on White's cheek as she gets hit by a bit of his Pokémon's mud slap as they battle in the woods. And she wins, she always wins, but he doesn't care anymore because they're laughing and he's having the time of his life. And she suddenly steals his messenger bag and runs off with it, and he chases her until she trips over the same root she's tripped over since she was six and wandering into the woods with her friends for the first time. He shakes his head as he extends a hand to help her up: this time he laughs aloud, instead of holding it in and only letting his eyes show his amusement. Because even though he's the Champion's protégé, and she's a hero, and they're both so much older even though it's really only been a year, and even though she's faster than him, it doesn't matter if she can't keep upright.

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><p>Well, there is is. Let's hope fanfiction will stop giving me a stupid error message and actually let me upload this because I'm tired, damn it.<p>

I can't give a definite on when I'll be writing next.


End file.
